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miércoles, 16 de diciembre de 2015

I got banned by theforce.net for saying Star Wars The Force Awakens is a mistake (and proud of it)

By Victor Hernandez

Today I wear the following screen cap as a badge of honor:

They didn't know I was going to make that comment. Which means I got banned long before.

Why did theforce.net banned me? Because I was the only one who dared to point out that fact that Star Wars The Force Awakens is nothing more than a shameful rehash of the original trilogy that, unlike the 6 George Lucas Movies, which were original, independent author films, The Force Awakens has only two purposes: pander to the fanboys who didn't like the prequel trilogy, and make millions of dollars for Disney.

But let us got back a few years in the past in order to make this discussion all the more poignant.

1983: I went to see Return of the Jedi 6 times in my local movie theater. I loved it. Back then, as an elementary school kid, I also had RTOJ Topps trading cards, numerous Kenner action figures, and a knockoff green light saber that actually whooshed like the movie's by swingin it.

1984: I went to the opening of a crappy video store just because Darth Vader was going to be there. Well, not THE Darth Vader, but some guy in a costume.

1985: I had all Star Wars movies on VHS.

1997: I went to my local theater to see Star Wars Special Edition twice THE SAME DAY. I also went to see the special editions of The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi.

1998 (I think): I bought the Special Edition Trilogy on VHS.

Circa 1998-1999: I discovered TheForce.net and became a regular reader so I could get every bit of information on The Phantom Menace.

1999: I almost ditched my final exam in a multimedia class in College just so I could go find free editions of the College paper because it had some Phantom Menace promotion collectin some circular cardobard prints.

1999: I was in line for the midnight premiere of The Phanton Menace.

2000: I bought The Phantom Menace on VHS. Came with a little book with highlights of The Art of Star Wars.

2001-2002: I bought The Phantom Menace again on DVD.

2002: I went to the midnight premiere of Attack of the Clones.

2002: I bought the Attack of the Clones DVD.

2005: After watching it religiously on Cartoon Network, I bought The Clone Wars original micro series on VHS.

2005: I also bought the original trilogy on DVD.

2005: I went to the midnight premiere of Revenge of the Sith.

2005: I bought the Revenge of the Sith DVD.

2008: I didn't see it in theaters but I bought on bluray the Clone Wars movie.

2008-2014: I never missed an episode of The Clone Wars and bought the blurays for all seasons including the Lost Episodes.

2014-2015: I saw Star Wars Rebels ONLY because it was made by Dave Filoni, who was literally trained by George Lucas to take over the Star Wars animated series after George retired (Dave says so in one of the introductions to the first Rebels novel.)

2014: After looking at the first teaser trailers for The Force Awakens, finding out George Lucas had nothing to do with it, and his stories for the new trilogy were not used by Disney, red lights flashed all over my head. The Force Awakens WAS going to be, as we all feared, a 100% prefabricated, corporate product meant to make money, not an original author film the way George Lucas intended the other 6 movies to be.

(I'm listing all of this just to show I've been a big Star Wars fan for over 30 years. So my criticism isn't out of spite, but out of real concern.)

2015: I criticized heavily and objectively The Force Awakens, accusing Disney and JJ Abrams of rehashing the same story elements of the original trilogy but with a different name. And I said it as comments on theforce.net. My ongoing line for criticizing The Force Awakens was, plain and simple, "this movie is a mistake."

And that's it. I never used profanity. I simply pointed out with logical, well constructed arguments that Disney was rehashing Tatooine, Hoth, Endor, The Death Star, and making no original or interesting designs for the movie. I mean, seriously: Sebulba's pod racer had a lot more personality than painting TIE fighters black and a moronic light saber with crossguards that's sure to kill whoever is using it.

So a few minutes ago, when I tried to post that comment saying what everybody already knew anyway (yes, Kylo Wren is Han Solo and Leia's kid and he does Kill Han in the movie) I find out I was banned.

I already knew, because they said so when the prequel trilogy was all the rage, that theforce.net was working with LucasFilm directly. This time around, it felt as though theforce.net was nothing more than an outlet to peddle Disney merchandise, so I have to ask if their decision to ban me was because they, the site where we all used to get our spoilers, actually thought that was the right thing to do (if so, why?), or if Disney ordered them ban any actual Star Wars fan who made actual, objective criticism against the movie.

Now, let me present exhibit B; some of the review snippet from RottenTomatoes.com that actually agree with my view on the movie:

"The Force Awakens leans heavily on the original Star Wars, and that's comforting for fans."

"The nostalgic callbacks are so insistent that they can stop the narrative dead, like when some real drama is about to go down but everything pauses so we can have a meet-cute with C-3PO. Even the main villain comes off as some emo Darth Vader fanboy."

"Its script is ludicrous, riddled with coincidences and a fealty to existing text that a less forgiving person might call lazy."

"[Abrams ] has made an adoring copy of Star Wars, seeking to correct its perceived flaws, without understanding that nothing about that movie's context or meaning or enormous cultural impact can be duplicated."

"Go see The Force Awakens with an open mind, and without expectations of the same lightning being captured again in the same bottle."

"Abrams may not have taken a lot of risks."

And finally, the point I've been trying to make for a long time at TheForce.net:

"Abrams has adopted the relatively cautious strategy of essentially remaking the original "Star Wars,""

Remaking Star Wars? Nostalgic callbacks? Leaning heavily on the original Star Wars? That has a name. It's called REHASH. Nay: it's called RIPOFF.

I said it in comments at theforce.net and I will say it again here: The Force Awakens is nothing more than rehash from the original trilogy meant as a pandering device for fanboys who didn't like the prequel trilogy so Disney can make millions of dollars and recover the billions they paid to George Lucas when they bought LucasFilm.

That's the problem with The Force Awakens. It no longer is a groundbraking, independent author movie. It's no longer The Godfather. Hell, it's no longer The Godfather Part 3, if that's how you want to call the prequel trilogy. It's just a big ad for Disney.

And that is wrong. So very, very wrong.

No wonder journalists complained Disney imposed draconian restrictions on what to write in their reviews. The suspicious lack of real, objective criticism against the movie makes it clear this isn't a movie at all.

So long, theforce.net. I'm moving to Star Wars underground and Making Star Wars. They had better spoilers than you anyway.